The elderly people who died in a stifling nursing home after Hurricane Irma had body temperatures as high as 109.9.

They’d suffered for three days at the Hollywood facility without air conditioning.

Once Florida Power & Light finally arrived, it took the utility just 15 minutes to fix the problem.

Eight people died at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills on Sept. 13. All patients were evacuated that day after hospital workers and city emergency personnel ran room to room, discovering people severely ailing or already dead. A ninth died Tuesday.

On Wednesday regulators took further steps to prevent the 152-bed nursing home in Hollywood from operating.

The agency issued an emergency order suspending the nursing home’s operating license. It had already barred the facility from accepting new residents or taking Medicaid payments.

The resident found with the highest temperature, Gail Nova, 70, arrived at Memorial Regional Hospital at 6:42 a.m. on Sept. 13 and died seven minutes later, with a post-death temperature of 109.9 degrees, according to the emergency order.

Only several hours earlier, at the nursing home, staff described her as being “alert with flushed skin,” and having a temperature of 101 degrees. She was given oxygen and Tylenol for her fever, the state found.

Carolyn Eatherly’s temperature was 108.3 when she arrived at the hospital at 4:33 a.m., according to the state. She died less than a half hour later. Medical records from the nursing home showed her temperature taken at 4:42 a.m. was 101.6 degrees. But she was already at the hospital then.

“It’s extremely disturbing that the facility made a late entry claiming the temperature of 101.6, when the resident was already dying at the hospital with a temperature of 108.3,” the Agency for Health Care Administration said in the emergency license suspension order.

Another resident was discovered with “bluish lips.” That person, who succumbed to heat stroke, had a temperature of 107 degrees.

In another case, Estella Hendricks’ skin was described as “hot” and her body temperature was 103.3 degrees, the state said. She died less than an hour later with a documented temperature of 108.5 degrees.

The Hollywood nursing home where eight died in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma claimed Friday that Gov. Scott and several state agencies didn’t respond to pleas for help and that Florida Power & Light failed to show up four times to fix the electricity.

FPL refused to confirm or deny the nursing...

(David Fleshler and Lisa J. Huriash)

They were “too far gone and far too late to be saved,” the order said.

Normal body temperature is 98.6.

A criminal investigation is underway by the Hollywood Police Department, and Gov. Rick Scott has vowed to move aggressively to find answers to what happened to the dead, who ranged in age from 70 to 99.

The nursing home filed a lawsuit in a Tallahassee court late Tuesday, denying any wrongdoing and seeking to reopen and admit residents once again.

“There is no longer any emergency condition at the nursing home specifically or in the state of Florida generally … all electrical power for central air conditioning to Hollywood Hills was fully restored,” the lawsuit states, arguing for the home’s reopening. A lawyer for the nursing home said Wednesday that during the evacuation from the facility residents were placed outside in the Florida heat and questioned when the temperatures cited by health regulators were taken or by whom.

“Before the evacuation, only two of the residents who passed away had elevated temperatures, neither of which were in the critical range,” Kirsten Ullman, co-counsel for the nursing home, said.

Staff at the nursing home had spent considerable time in the days before Sept 13 beseeching officials for help. They called a state emergency line. They left multiple messages on the governor’s cellphone. They spoke to Florida health officials. They submitted service requests with Florida Power & Light. The nursing home had installed eight portable air coolers and placed fans in hallways.

In its license suspension, Florida regulators said the nursing home residents did not get timely care because “trained medical professionals at the facility overwhelmingly delayed calling 911.” State officials blamed the nursing home for not promptly evacuating residents across the street to Memorial hospital, a major medical facility with functioning air conditioning.

State officials continued Wednesday to blast the nursing home for not conveying how at risk the patients were, but a spokesman for the nursing home said they relayed to the governor’s office that residents included frail and elderly people, some on oxygen.

According to records from the governor’s office, a physician assistant was in the nursing home Tuesday night and took the temperatures of some 140 residents but did not find any elevated readings.

The physician assistant, Bryan James, referred questions to his attorney, who also declined to comment to the Sun Sentinel.

The nursing home’s medical director Dr. Brian Ibrahim declined to say whether he was on site during the four critical days, referring questions to his attorney. He said he was “saddened by the tragic events,” and will fully cooperate with investigators.

Two other South Florida doctors visited residents between midmorning and 4 p.m. on Sept. 12, the nursing home’s lawsuit says, and did not find anyone in distress.